Product Description

They have the body of a slaughtered woman. They have a half-naked man standing over her. They have no idea how to make him talk. And so they call in ex-FBI interrogator Alex Rourke to the traumatized Maine town of Winter’s End. But as Rourke probes the mind of the enigmatic ‘Nicholas’, he is forced to re-examine his own past .... Strange things have been happening in Winter’s End. The question is why. And if the man in custody does hold the answers to crimes both present and past, then Alex will have to get to them – and quickly. Because it soon becomes clear that what Nicholas has been waiting for from the beginning – is Alex Rourke.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #205218 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-12
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
The opening scene of this piece is enough to get you hooked until the end: a man with a knife in each hand standing over the moonlit naked body of a female, both drenched by a heavy rainfall. Although the scene looks self-explanatory, the killer appears to have no identity and neither is there any evidence to convict him of the crime. Cue the clich d lonesome investigator, Alex Rourke, who is called back to his hometown in order to help solve the case. However, as the murder mystery gradually unravels, Rourke finds himself increasingly the pawn rather than the player of a sinister game. Can our hero outwit the killer? Rickards' use of the pathetic fallacy and descriptive dark settings provide a brilliant staging to this dramatic debut novel.

Peter Robinson, author of In A Dry Season and Aftermath
Grips you from its chilling opening scene to its stunning conclusion. A fine debut. Rickards is definitely one to watch.

From the Author
You catch a guy at the scene of a brutal murder with the weapons in his hands – pretty open and shut. But what if you can’t actually prove he did it? What if he won’t even tell you his name? If you don’t know who he is, how can you ever know why he did what he did?

Dealing with all these questions is the job of Alex Rourke, returning to his home town for the first time in seventeen years at the request of the police. As he struggles to unravel the stranger’s reasons for killing, and his reasons for picking the tiny town of Winter’s End, Alex is forced to face the ghosts of his own past and those of his sleepy town before they can overwhelm the present.

In writing Winter’s End, I wanted to create a group of complex yet very human characters in a setting and story with a very definite gothic slant and a genuinely creepy atmosphere, somewhere the lines between perception and reality could be blurred, just a little.

Welcome to Winter’s End. I hope you enjoy your stay.

- John R.

Customer Reviews

Gripping Debut
Just for once the front cover of a novel truly sets the scene for the plot that follows - dark, brooding, mysterious, qualities which enigmatically develop with the main character, antihero Alex Rourke. The portrayal of small-town America is perceptively painted and the gripping suspense chills right from the start. Be warned. Once you start reading this you won't be able to stop.

Winter's End
A good crime novel, that follows the genre conventions as well as offering something new. Nicholas, the murder gives himself up in the first chapter and former FBI man Alex Rourke is asked to take the case from there. The story is written in first person from Alex's point of view.

The first half is very spooky, especially as you realise that the murder, despite being captured still presents menace. The second half is more conventional and descends into a kind of melodrama. The final twist though dramatic did not have me convinced.

I was hooked for its entire length and enjoyed reading it. Menacing, atmospheric and unique but it is not a classic.

Gripping detective thriller
Sometimes catching the killer is only the beginning.The advert on the tube station caught my eye. Bought the book at WH Smiths on Victoria Stn. Started to read the book on the journey home. Could not put it down next day. The prologue sets the pace,you can feel the rain lashing down as they make their gruesome discovery. Twists and turns in the plot to keep you guessing until the end. Have already ordered The Touch Of Ghosts.